HOW TO TELL YOU THAT I LOVE YOU
that when I feel like breaking
your voice feels like safety?
you waking up and not loving me?
love lost in the blink of an eye.
what happens if I can’t be what you need?
And how do I tell you that I love you,
so much not even that fear
is enough to scare me away?
language is not enough for my love?
1. Noun. A tool of communication
that allows me to tell you,
tell the world how I feel.
made up by their society.
2. Noun. A resource that is not enough,
not enough to be truthful,
space in a sentence to confess
Verb. A different kind of hurting,
my bones clash against one another,
a different kind of ache.
Feelings do not come from the heart,
but I feel a pressure in my chest.
a pain so solid it must be imaginary.
I’m cold and I think of you,
the warmth you would give off,
can bask in your presence,
We fill our spaces with nonsense words,
One of them points to one,
Proto Indo-European leubh,
No space between love and you
except implied in the action.
and both are synonymous with—
No passivity in the thought
Object inactive and subject active.
No reciprocity implied or
keeping us from each other.
except these four letters arranged
—linguistics speak of a word’s history (but not of my history with it), r. b.